The Rogues Plan
Ayden was suddenly awoken as a black burlap sack was forced over his head, muffling his yells of protest. He was rushed out of the tent and in a direction he couldn't decipher, and pushed up onto a cart. "What's going on?" he heard to his right. "I don't know, man, I was asleep!" another voice, this time to his left, whispered.
"Everyone be quiet!" Ayden recognized Nikodemus's voice, and everyone hushed. "You want to be here? You have to prove yourselves to us. We have a…fun mission planned." He announced, a lilt of humor tingeing his voice. "You want to stay in our camp, here's your first task; we're going to the Capital Headquarters near Olkmont, where all the big wigs stay when they come for the Autumn Festival. There's a meeting planned there for a week from today; they're meeting with Paris to discuss his always epic finale to the festival. There's going to be a lot of publicity, and as such we're going to make sure there's something for them to talk about. All of you are going to be the reason there's a bit of an embarrassment for everyone involved, do you understand?" Silence over the riders in the back of the cart. "Excellent." Nik chuckled, urging the cart forward.
They traveled for what seemed like hours, but could have been minutes as they had no way to judge how far they were traveling. Finally, the cart lurched to a halt, and the passengers were ushered out, their head coverings removed. The building in front of them resembled the buildings of the Council Capital in the center of Ceokia; grand, made of glass, eccentric. Nikodemus handed each of them a variety of different objects; paint, streamers, confetti. Ayden looked between the objects in his hands, Nikodemus, and the others who traveled with him. Only two had spoken, but there was a third; a female who Ayden noticed was also a vampire. "If anyone has any objections to this, leave now. You do not know where our camp is, and there is no way you could ever find us. Anyone want to take me up on that?" They all stood, staring at one another, in silence for several minutes. "Great!" Nik smiled. "Let's get to work, then." He announced joyfully.
As the others began vandalize the sides of the building, Nikodemus took it upon himself to paint, in the largest print he could manage and the most obnoxious color he could find 'you can't control love' over the large, glass doors. By the time the first sun was barely rising behind the mountains in the distance, their masterpiece was done; it was every color imaginable, with confetti and streamers falling from every possible place, even some of the nearby trees sported streamers. "It's beautiful!" Nik mock cried. "But we better skedaddle. Masks back on please recruits." They all obliged after climbing back into the back of the cart.